April 27, 2010
Filed under: Business Tools,IT — admin @ 12:43 pm
Dubai has emerged in the last decade to reinvent itself away from being an oil producing nation into a major world player in the business, retail and entertainment markets. Its gigantic investments into all kinds of infrastructure, now means that it competes with the main Western destinations for all kinds of amenities such as hotels, conventions, theme parks and sports.
One of its major emerging sports and entertainment events is the Dubai Tennis Championships which is now very much a part of the main international tennis circuit and is jockeying for position against the big competitions such as Wimbledon.
The Dubai Tennis Championships now attract all of the big names in the tennis world, as well as a serious following from those that love the sport. As it has grown in popularity the event has also grown complexity, meaning that it now attracts large numbers of players as well as huge crowds who want to see and be seen at one of the world’s great sporting occasions.
All of this requires an incredible amount of very complex and in-depth organisation on all kinds of levels in order to ensure that all goes well and there are no major logistical problems in holding a competition.
In order to fulfil these requirements the Dubai Tennis Championships have teamed up with Xerox in order to take advantage of their in-depth knowledge of all kinds of essentials from basic printing right up to communicating with hundreds of different organisations spread across the globe in all time zones.
Xerox is also an extremely fundamental part in dealing with the world’s press and giving them everything that they need to cover the event in real time and in depth, so that the right information can be provided to a world audience.
Watch this promotional video to see how Xerox are helping out.
Xerox provides a range of products and specialist services to Dubai Tennis Championships allowing them to focus on what they do best. Visit xerox.com
Filed under: Business Tools,Legal — admin @ 8:31 am
IT Governance, the information security and governance experts, are launching a new toolkit that provides everything an organisation needs to comply with the UK’s Data Protection Act (DPA) by using the BS10012 standard.
BS10012 is the British standard that specifies the requirements for a personal information management system (PIMS). By defining a best practice approach for managing personal information, the standard makes it possible for management and external auditors to assess an organisation’s compliance with, among other things, the requirements of the DPA. BS10012 is intended for use by organisations of all sizes in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors.
IT Governance’s DPA Compliance with BS10012 Documentation Toolkit includes step-by-step guidance on establishing a BS10012 PIMS and provides a complete set of the necessary documentation, from a Fair Processing Notice through to a procedure for handling Subject Access Requests. The toolkit also shows how to integrate a BS10012 PIMS with an ISO27001 information security management system.
Alan Calder, Chief Executive of IT Governance, says: “The Data Protection Act sets out eight principles for securely managing personal information, but offers no guidance on how these principles should be adhered to. It can therefore be very difficult for management to know if it is doing the right thing, which is worrying when non-compliant organisations can suffer heavy fines and reputational damage.”
“BS10012 therefore comes as a welcome relief, as it sets out an approach to DPA compliance that is clear and can be independently tested,” Calder continues. “With the Information Commissioner increasingly keen to punish DPA compliance offenders, there is no time to waste. That is why the DPA Compliance with BS10012 Toolkit contains everything an organisation needs to implement this standard without delay.”
The DPA Compliance with BS10012 Documentation Toolkit is priced at £249.95/US$373.02/€274.90 and may be ordered for immediate download at: http://www.itgovernance.co.uk/products/2975.
April 23, 2010
Filed under: Small business — Alan @ 6:19 pm
Owners of SMEs are asking for the new Government that comes out of the General Election to make taxation easier.
The software company Sage conducted a survey that asked 2,000 SMEs what the largest barriers to starting up were, to which about 72% stated that the complexity of HMRC rules is a large problem, while another 76% felt they were missing tax breaks they were eligible for due to the fact that the system was too hard to properly navigate.
MD of direct marketing company, The Data Partnership, Victoria Pooley stated that there is currently too much red tape and thresholds surrounding the taxation laws that make it hard for a company to grow in particularly with offshore call centres.
The Sage survey also found that when offered a chance to make one change to the way the tax system is set up 36% of all SMEs would like it to be simpler, while the next largest group at 26% reported they would freeze the VAT at about 18%. A small portion of 6% responded that they would like to see the 50p income tax rate for high earners scrapped.
Tax specialist for the accountant firm RSM Tenon, Andrew Hubbard, stated that for the most part all business owners simply want to be left unbothered and most the time when a change is made to simplify the process of taxes it only incurs more problems and costs.
MD of Sage’s accountants division, Jayne Archbold, stated that when the economy is shaky being aware of the tax breaks available to a company can mean the difference between failure and success.
Filed under: Small business — Alan @ 6:16 pm
The Information Security Forum (ISF) which is a security trade group that in the past only catered to large corporations is now attempting to gain the input of small businesses.
The ISF will now allow companies that have a turnover of under £100m per year to apply for an SME membership according to an announcement made by the group this week.
The ISF is a non-profit international organization that offers guidance to members on information security issues and best practice solutions. Notable member organizations include British Airways, GlaxoSmithKline, Barclays, and Prudential.
Service director for IT analyst firm Freeform Dynamics, Andrew Buss, stated that opening up the ISF to SME membership is a good idea because all companies regardless of size can benefit from third party guidance and information when it comes to security.
The new ISF SME membership will allow businesses to access over 400 reports on information security as well as online discussion groups that allow companies to exchange their methodologies and access to the web based ISF Security Healthcheck tool.
While it does offer these perks, a SME membership is restricted compared to a full membership, with SME members unable to access the full range of provided benchmarking services and security tools and not invited to attend the ISF world congress event held every year.
Buss stated that the most likely SMEs to sign up for a membership will be those that are on the larger side themselves.
April 17, 2010
Filed under: Small business — Alan @ 2:33 am
Almost three out of every four SMEs has been affected by late payments that occurred over the course of 2009, but less than half of them have actually taken any steps to reduce the pressure of their occurrence, according to research from NatWest and its parent company the Royal Bank of Scotland.
The research included numbers from 500 companies, out of which, there are a total of £15.7b of invoices that are over 120 days in arrears. Banks estimate that 235,000 of SMEs are still wasting their time chasing invoices that are overdue, which is the largest problem for wholesalers; out of which 93% have faced lengthy delays. Retailers on the other hand have had a better outlook with only 66% faced with late payments.
Additional Barclay’s research that is based on data compiled from 1,000 companies suggests that some SMEs are taking active steps in order to reduce the cash flow pressure by writing off large amounts of debts. In fact, about 720,000 SMEs wrote off on average about £2,529 in debts in 2009 which is almost double than the amount that was written off in 2008.
The two companies also estimate that fewer than half of all SMEs have actually taken action to combat the debt with only about 11% choosing to hire an in-house credit controller, 8% factoring, and 9% to start using invoice discounting in order to each the pressure from cash flow problems that are caused by owed debts.
Filed under: Small business — Alan @ 2:31 am
The Tories first were able to get the top business leaders such as Sir Stuart Rose to ditch the cuts in public spending proposed by the Labour party, but now they have gone even farther and managed to convince 400 SMEs to go against it as well.
However, in an effort not to be completely outdone, Labour has reached out to many eminent economists who wrote and signed a letter that warns if the Tories public sector cuts occur the UK may fall back into an economic recession.
Still, the Conservatives played their cards well, waiting until just after the Labour Party stated that 58 economists worry the economic recovery of the UK may be in danger and then showed the letter of support from the SMEs hours later.
Labour’s letter came with some powerful signatories however, including those of Sir David Hendry and Lord Layard who argue that the £66bn efficiency savings this year proposed by the Tories is just another way to say a budget cut and that the recovery of the economy is too fragile for this heavy action.
Of course, the SMEs who support the Tories have a different viewpoint arguing that if the Government increases National Insurance it will halt job growth since this is the wrong time to be taxing jobs.
The SME’s also stated in their supportive letter that it is not the Tories budget cuts that will hurt the economy, but instead the increase in the National Insurance that will stall the economic growth.
April 16, 2010
Filed under: Business Advice,Business Finance,Small business — admin @ 9:05 am
Research by NatWest and its Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) parent, has highlighted that 71% of UK small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have suffered from late payments in the past 12 months. The research found that in the past 12 months, a staggering £63bn remained unpaid beyond the agreed deadline and that £15.7bn of this was more than 120 days overdue, potentially threatening the survival of SMEs.
Document management and imaging software company, Version One (www.versionone.co.uk), has published some advice how SMES can cut through late payment excuses in order to get paid on time.
1. Don’t underestimate the importance of credit checks.
It’s vital to assess a customer’s creditworthiness before supplying them with goods and services. Don’t be afraid to turn away business if your potential supplier has a poor credit history as a handful of poor payers can bankrupt a small company. There are licensed credit reference agencies available as well as online credit check companies. The latter are suitable for even the smallest of companies.
2. Ensure credit limits are authorised and enforced by the relevant people.
It’s also advisable to enable the electronic authorisation of credit limits by all relevant people internally, such as the managing director, finance director and credit controller. This speeds-up the credit limit authorisation process, keeps all the key people in the loop and provides an authorisation trail for future reference.
3. Always be clear about your terms and conditions for payment.
Print these terms on the invoice to avoid any potential ambiguity.
4. Request a purchase order number/reference and ensure this is visible on the sales invoice.
It’s also important to reference the person who authorised the purchase to avoid queries further down the line.
5. Electronically deliver sales invoices and statements.
Electronic rather than postal delivery ensures customers are in receipt of invoices sooner. There is also a record of when the invoice was received (and read) by the customer so that you can say “you received it at 9.15am on the last day of the month and opened it at 9.20am”. This bypasses any problems with the postal office and prevents customers from using the excuse that they haven’t received the invoice in order to delay payment. Electronic delivery also frees-up staff time spent printing, photocopying and enveloping invoices and statements so that they can focus on chasing late payers.
6. Always provide electronic copies of signed proof of deliveries (PODs) with the sales invoices.
This will eliminate the all too common excuse; “but we never received the goods”.
7. Store all sales invoices, statements, PODs and related documents in a secure, electronic archive.
These documents also need to be instantly accessible from the desktop and linked to the relevant ledgers in the accounting system so that they can be retrieved quickly and no key documents can ever get lost.
8. Provide early payment discounts and late payment charges to incentivise customers to pay on time.
Remember that the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 allows small businesses with less than 50 employees to claim interest on overdue payments from other companies.
9. Introduce flexible payment options.
Consider introducing more flexible ways for customers to pay such as in pre-agreed instalments.
10. Keep in regular contact with debtors.
This will help to identify any potential payment issues early on.
In the current climate , it’s crucial that companies take action to claw back monies owed if they are to avoid insolvency due to late payments like 4,000 firms in 2008 (according to the Federation of Small Businesses). A few simple changes to the credit control process can make a huge impact, ensuring SMEs are around to prosper when the economy fully recovers.
April 10, 2010
Filed under: Small business — Alan @ 5:38 pm
The Enterprise Tsar of the Government is set to lead a three member team that will advise ministers on how to make sure that all SMEs receive proper and fair treatment when seeking loans or credit from banks.
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson expects the group to help create a path that will lead to the appointment of a SBCA or Small Business Credit Adjudicator whose responsibility it will be to referee any disputes although the position will not be enacted until after the General Election.
Lord Sugar has already had a row with task force member John Wright the former chairman of the FSB. Wright called for his resignation in November of 2009 when the new Business Tsar said that companies that are struggling are comparable to those who moan even though they live in a ‘Disney World.’
He also stated that 85pc of SMEs that want bank loans should instead be seeking the advice of a bankruptcy adviser adding that most of the companies that are complaining are those that he would not even consider lending a penny to.
Currently, Mr. Wright and Lord Sugar are understood to be on good terms, but the decision to make an Ombudsman type complaints body announced as part of the Budget last week has already caused one political row with the CBI director general, Richard Lambert, stating that the proposal will never actually come about because it is ‘pure political rhetoric’ that will never work.
In response, Lord Mandelson stated that Lambert is siding with the bullying banks and betraying SMEs.
April 9, 2010
Filed under: Business Tools,Marketing — admin @ 7:16 am
The growth of social networking on the internet has been rapid and is only likely to continue into the future as social networks grow in number and size. Businesses are increasingly looking to expand their presence online and provide a medium for their customers through which they can interact. Equally the market of social networking software has become a fairly lucrative one that many businesses are looking to move into and provide social networks for their clients. Thus the interest in people looking to develop and create social networks is growing all the time as they become an important tool of the present and the future. Internet security however is an additional factor that users need to consider when building a social network. There is a good availability of free antivirus software available to help ensure that your computer and internet activities are better protected.
The availability of white label social networks is ideal for both social network developers and businesses that are looking to integrate a social network into their site. The white label functionality means that all branding can be removed from the network, allowing developers to upload their clients’ logos so that the software can be seamlessly integrated as a bespoke social network. Similarly, businesses can apply their own domain and remove all links and image references so that the network can be branded as their own and members will not know what platform it is running on.
The extensive level of customisation that you can undertake allows developers and businesses alike to create a completely unique social network. In creating a social network for business the design and layout can be radically adjusted from the admin centre in order to create a network that you are completely happy with. The point and click tools makes it simple to make changes and the layout manager allows you to drag and drop every element of the network. Developers can go a step further and make advanced developments through the API, CSS style sheets and custom HTML, or just overhaul the look and feel of the network with a few clicks of the mouse.
The features that can be utilised as part of your social network are vast and soon members will be interacting on a variety of different levels. Members that sign up can set up their own personal profile and, in turn, get chatting with fellow members, whether that is through the easy messaging services, the forums or text and video chat. These features come as standard and they can further share content such as photos and videos, write their own blogs and create and organise events within their own groups. For further accessibility the social network can be integrated with their Facebook and Twitter accounts, so that they are logged in with the click of a button.
A social network can be created in minutes and all that is required is for you to pick the features, monetisation option and support package that you require. Developers can make a considerable mark up by selling on the network that they create, whilst businesses can recoup money by charging for membership or premium services, and hosting advertisements and classified listings. Businesses can also select the level of help they require that is available on demand, from getting assistance with the design and setup to personal support every step of the way.
April 2, 2010
Filed under: Small business — Alan @ 1:45 am
Wales SMEs are facing a mixture of fear about business and consumer spending, but at the same time they are attempting to deal with the high cost of materials according to a new report published by GE Capital.
The report is composed of interviews that were held with 500 UK SME owners during the month of March and found that 40% of all Welch companies listed inventory costs and the high raw materials costs as one of their chief concerns in terms of their future success.
In fact, the worry over the rising costs was almost as high as the fear of how much UK spending will be focused on business and consumer spending which was identified as a worry by 42% of SMEs.
Regional director of GE Capital, Paul Emeades, stated that as the country is on the cusp of an economic turnaround the Government is going to have to match the budget to support the Wales SMEs if it does not want to halt their recovery.
Emeades continued to say that Wales SMEs should not be left behind because with over 52,000 firms worried that their numbers will decrease this year the Government needs to take note and focus on keeping conditions right to foster growth.
He also stated that in order to aid the SME’s the Government should consider reducing the cost of the new regulation, reduce the potential impact of high fuel costs which continue to rise, and rethink the proposal to increase the fuel duty later in 2010.
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